On February 19, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, turned 64. The once little lad from Ishiagu in Ivo Local government area of Ebonyi state has turned the pages of life 64 times. And in good health. A storied life. Anyim is a living evidence of God’s grace. A testimony of help from above. A compelling story of divine help. Scion of peasant parents, brought up in a peasant commune, he shot to national prominence clearly on the wings of divinity. When you hear certain gospellers talk about God having favourites, it’s not for nothing. It’s for reasons of special grace and favour enjoyed by some people even among their peers. Anyim is God’s favourite.

Even in the Holy Writ, the Bible, there were special persons who enjoyed special grace from God. In the new testament, John the beloved, one of the 12 disciples, was projected as Jesus’s favourite. Always in the bosom of the Lord; specially loved by the Lord even to the knowledge of other disciples. Kings David, Solomon, Hezekiah, among others in the old testament, despite their shortcomings, enjoyed special privileges from God. Hezekiah presented one of those rare cases when God changed His mind. The same God that told him  that his time on earth was up changed His mind and added 15 more years to his years in the land of the living.

And all of these men openly admitted that God, and only God, had helped them. It’s the nature of God. He lifts the humble and humbles the haughty. He helps the poor. He uses the foolish things to confound the wise. He makes a hero out of the weak, the discarded. King David as a shepherd boy was discarded by his family. Pushed to tend the animals. The least in the house of Jesse. But God is a specialist in promoting the least, the lowly. The God that forgives and specially loves the most iniquitous and disregards the self-righteous. And that’s why God remains a mystery. No man can predict him. He chooses who to show mercy.

Anyim’s story mirrors any of the Biblical stories where God fashioned strength among the weak and made the humble and lowly to sit with kings. Anyim is a man lifted from the dunghill to the dais of prominence. Through the boisterous waves and fiery fire of treacherous politics, Anyim braved them all. Unbowed. Unsinged. So, when he marked (not celebrated) his 64^th birthday last month, he chose to flock with the poor and the discarded. Karu orphanage, an unlikely place for men of means and women of substance to spend their precious time, became the privileged venue of a gathering of former governors, political titans and sundry dignitaries. Karu is not Asokoro, nor is it Maitama. Karu sits on the suburb of Abuja, detached from the opulence and grandeur of the city centres. But that’s where Anyim chose.

He chose the Biblical passage of John 3:8 as the theme of his birthday memorial. It says: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” This sums up the story of believers, and more fittingly, the story of Anyim. The race is never to the swift. Brilliant men have ended up as failures while supposed blockheads in schools ended up as successful entrepreneurs employing first class graduates. Such is the wind of life. You never know where it will blow you to. The great Albert Einstein, struck with Dyslexia in early life, was asked to discontinue schooling because his teacher judged him to be moronic on account of his slow speech but he grew up to become the greatest physicist of all time.

Anyim put it most succinctly while addressing inmates of the orphanage who rendered a beautiful birthday song just for him. He told them that the circumstance of one’s birth, the place one was born and other potentially dispiriting conditions should never determine how far one can go in life’s convoluted journey for as along as one has the spirit of God.

Anyim came prepared. He offered the overtly jubilant orphans study materials and food items as gifts. He gave much more. At this point, the administrators of the orphanage and the orphans were already rhapsodic upon receiving the gifts. Then came the mother of all gifts; an enduring gift of priceless value. Anyim appealed to the dignitaries who came with him to the orphanage, and they were many, to each adopt a child or two whom they will sponsor from their current level of education, primary or secondary, to university level. A beautiful proposition and it received laudation from everyone present including the orphans, most of whom could no longer hide their emotion. Their tears scripted their joy.

With this special gift from a special Nigerian politician, the wind of life will surely blow kindly on the orphans. In the coming years, the orphanage would have produced engineers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, nurses, entrepreneurs and other categories of professionals. This template of marking one’s birthday is noble and should be adopted by other politicians and public-spirited Nigerians. Using the occasion of one’s birthday to beautify the lives of others, especially those stuck in the valley of life. This is typical of Anyim. A man not given to showy aggrandizement. A man of grass to grace. An incurable democrat who believes that in a democracy, efforts should be channelled towards building institutions, not making over-bearing individuals; a man who never fails to acknowledge the God factor in his life’s odyssey.

Anyim was President of the 4^th Senate, the third Senate President within a space of the most turbulent 4 years in the life of any Senate in Nigeria’s annals. He brought stability to the Senate and was not impeached like his more experienced predecessors – Chuba Okadigbo and Evans Enwerem – despite several attempts to bring him down. Grace!

Sir, as you brought joy to those orphans at the expense of your own personal gain, so shall God command the earth to keep you and grant you unspeakable joy and peace in this land of the living with many more decades of birthday anniversaries in good health.